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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WBBM/CBS) – Four men freed from prison after being wrongly convicted and sentenced to death are making a public plea to Gov. Pat Quinn.

As WBBM Newsradio 780’s Bernie Tafoya reports, the exonerated former Death Row inmates would like to meet with Quinn. They want to urge him to sign into law the bill that would abolish the death penalty in Illinois.

Randy Steidl who was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1986 murders of newlyweds Dyke and Karen Rhoads in downstate Paris, Ill., but was later exonerated of the crime. He says there is another option besides capital punishment.

“Life without parole,” Steidl said, “and it guarantees there will never be a possibility of executing an innocent person.”

Steidl says there has never been any proof that the death penalty deters people from committing crimes.

“Why do we kill people who kill people, to show that killing people is wrong?
Steidl said.

He says former Death Row inmates wrote to Quinn a month ago asking for a meeting, but have not yet received a response.

Acknowledging his state has “come under the harsh glare of criticism” over a controversial new “religious freedom” law, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said he wants state lawmakers to pass new legislation that makes clear businesses cannot discriminate against gay and lesbian couples.

Police said the robbers used a prop in at least two holdups in the Fuller Park neighborhood. They set up a road construction barrel in the street, and when a motorist gets out of his or her car to move it aside, the robbers pounce.

Indonesian prosecutors on Tuesday sought jail sentences of 18 years for an American man and 15 years for his girlfriend if they are found guilty of murdering the woman's mother while vacationing on the resort island of Bali last year.

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